Russian River Brewing Co.

For the uninitiated, the Santa Rosa, CA, brewery is mecca for fermentation geeks. I lived one town over from the brewery years ago and stopped in when I saw people lining up on the sidewalks clamoring to get the first taste of limited release beer called Pliny the Younger. Inside I found a bar built around the beer, meaning the brews only travel a few feet through tap lines from keg to tap. This means seriously fresh beer. It's also the first place I know of that listed the vitals of its beers on tap on a massive blackboard behind the bar listing things like O.G. (original gravity), which helps determine A.B.V. (alcohol by volume). Here, take a look.

I rarely encounter these beers on the east coast, so my buddy Mike May, the brewery restaurant's manager, was kind enough to to ship me a grab bag, including Pliny the Elder, a double I.P.A., and Blind Pig, the flagship I.P.A. (fun fact: "Blind Pig" was what a mason jar full of beer was called during prohibition), and some of the wilder, truly original brews like Damnation (a golden ale), Supplication (sour aged in wine barrels), and Sanctification (a blonde ale with Brettanomyces, a.k.a. Brett, an unruly yeast that creates a pleasantly sour and tropical tasting beer).

"People like our beer because they care about where the hops and grains come from, and the beer is fresher," May told me the other day when I thanked him for the case. "It's good for America."